Pellets made by cutting a long fiber-reinforced resin strand into pieces, for example, of about 3 to 15 mm in length are used in the manufacture of injection molded articles, such as vehicle interior members (the console box, the instrument panel, etc.), vehicle exterior members (the bumper, the fender, etc.), and the housing for electronic device members (a notebook personal computer, a mobile phone, etc.).
As techniques according to a prior art relating to a fiber-reinforced resin strand and a manufacturing apparatus thereof, for example, configurations described below are known. To begin with, a manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand according to a first prior art will be described with reference to FIG. 17, which is an explanatory view of this apparatus. The manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand according to the first prior art is configured to efficiently manufacture a fiber-reinforced resin strand having high adhesion between a reinforcing fiber and resin. To be more specific, spreaders 58 that spread a reinforcing fiber bundle are provided inside a crosshead 55 into which a molten resin material 52 is continuously supplied from an extruding machine 56. In addition, at the exist side of the crosshead 55, a forming die 59, a cooler 60, twisting rollers (also referred to as cross roller capstans) 61a and 61b, and pultruding rollers 62 are provided sequentially in this order from the exist side.
According to the manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand thus configured, after reinforcing fibers 51, 51, . . . , and so forth are soaked in a molten resin material 52 inside the crosshead 55 to be impregnated with resin, the sectional shape is determined by the forming die 59, after which they are cooled to harden by the cooler 60. The twisting rollers 61a and 61b are rubber rollers and configured to be driven to rotate in directions opposite to each other. These twisting rollers 61a and 61b are provided so as to incline in directions opposite to each other on a horizontal plane. A fiber-reinforced resin strand 53 rotates about the shaft center as it is pultruded in the direction indicated by an arrow in association with the rotational driving of the respective rollers 61a and 61b while being pinched by the twisting rollers 61a and 61b in the crossed portion (contact portion).
The fiber-reinforced resin strand 53 is twisted on the way to the cooler 60 from the spreader 58a on the lowermost stream side owing to such rotations. The fiber-reinforced resin strand 53 thus twisted is pultruded by the pultruding rollers 62 to a position remote from the crosshead 55 and cut therein by a pelletizer 63 (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
However, the manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand according to Patent Document 1 has a problem that it is difficult to manufacture a fiber-reinforced resin strand at a high production rate (for example, 40 m/min).    Patent Document 1: JP-A-5-169445